Big Win Basketball Review

Hothead Games is no stranger to simulated sports management games, and Big Win Basketball mostly delivers a similar type of experience to its Hothead’s stable mates. It allowed me, as a coach/manager, to develop a team worthy of winning basketball glory in multiplayer leagues.

The game had a retro feel to it; graphics-wise; it had me hearkening back to arcade 2v2 basketball. The graphics were relatively smooth though, and I could clearly make out the plays as the players milled around the court. The colors were fairly well defined without being distracting, and the basketball court looked like a basketball court, with good artistic perspective.

To start off, I got a starter pack of five players and some impact cards. The impact cards were used during the game. One impact cards, for instance, was a “swatter” which b-ball heads will guess correctly as a sort of upgrade to block shots. I also got some game coins, and could supplement that by opening the app daily and also by playing games. These coins could be used to procure extra stuff like better players, uniforms, power-ups and more.

The gameplay was fairly rudimentary; prior to the game, I did what was necessary to put the best team on the floor. I could improve my players by playing short games, which served to identify stuff I could improve with coins.

I had the option of watching a game; this was similar to playing a console version of basketball and allowing the computer to play itself on my behalf. I admittedly found this to be fairly entertaining, as the simulated players did some nice things. There were drives, high pick and rolls, slashing to the basket, dunks blocks, steals and more. Late in the game and down a few points, the game engine continually fouled me to put me at the line, and stop the clock. Interestingly, this tried and true coaching strategy almost worked.

I found this game to be surprisingly engaging. As a sports gamer back in the day, I would have loved more organic gameplay, but I sorta dig the developers vision. In the end, it is definitely worth trying.

Big Win Basketball Review Rundown

7.5

Graphics/sound - Inviting look, with retro look and sound

7.5

Controls - Little gametime control.

8

Gameplay - Management scenarios were well done; the added touch of watching games was a nice touch.